The latest on California politics and government

July 5, 2013

Did you have a good Fourth of July? Let's hope you got to enjoy the weather (OK, maybe not if you remained in Sacramento) and indulge in some time-honored rituals involving grilled food and aesthetically pleasing explosions.

A bill by Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, could ensure that those types of celebrations blaze through chillier times. Currently, you can buy fireworks in California from the end of June to just after the Fourth of July. His Senate Bill 777 would open a window between Dec. 26 and just after New Year's to indulge your pyrotechnic desires. Calderon tried this last year too, but the Assembly Appropriations Committee doused his hopes.

VIDEO: Confusing, off-putting, inconvenient -- Dan Walters has some harsh words for the Senate and the Assembly taking on different vacation schedules.

WELCOME BACK, BLUMENFIELD: Having traded the Assembly for the Los Angeles City Council, Bob Blumenfield will be in southern California today for a little celebration of the new post. He's scheduled be feted in Van Nuys this morning.

Also in the ex-Sacramento category is former Sen. Curren Price, who has joined Blumenfield on the city council. Their departures are the latest cracks in the vaunted Democratic supermajority -- as we noted, the Assembly rushed to get an ultimately unsuccessful two-thirds vote bill to the floor before Blumenfield left -- and earlier this week Capitol denizens got an idea of the timeline on which Blumenfield and Price will be replaced.

FPPC FACTS: Today's meeting of the Fair Political Practices Commission is diffused across the state. It's nominally at the Town Council Chambers in Los Gatos, but commission members will be joining via teleconference -- along with any enterprising citizens who want to join them -- from Oakland, San Diego, Torrance and Sacramento. Starting at 10 a.m.

UNIFORM LAWS: Members of the California Commission on Uniform State Laws are heading to a national conference in Boston this weekend. Don't let the vaguely sinister name fool you -- the Uniform Law Commission, which has been around for over a century, simply works on drafting legislation that could be adopted across all 50 states, which California has done several times. Neither of the current members of the Legislature who are on the California commission -- that would be Sen. Ellen Corbett, D-San Leandro, and Assemblyman Rob Bonta, D-Alameda -- are going to be in Boston this weekend.

PHOTO: Fireworks go off over Old Sacramento on Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011. The Sacramento Bee/Randall Benton.